Jose Maria Aguilar Porras
José María «Indio» Aguilar Porrás (May 3, 1891, San Ramón - December 21, 1951, Buenos Aires) was a Uruguayan guitarist, singer, and composer living in Argentina.
Biography
Until 1920 he worked in Uruguay with the payador Juan Pedro López. That year he crossed the Río de la Plata with a compatriot to appear as a guitarist at the La Argentina hall and the National Theater in Buenos Aires. In 1922 he recorded guitar solos for the RCA Victor record label and the following year a duet with Enrique Maciel and later with Pagés.
He was an accompanist for Agustín Magaldi (and his duo Magaldi-Noda), Ignacio Corsini (who was the first to second him in the recordings of his albums), Gómez-Vila, Pelaia-Catán, Alberto Vila, Adhelma Falcón (Ada Falcón's sister) and Carlos Gardel, with whom she traveled to Europe.
Compositions
His compositions have his own lyrics or were made in collaboration with Enrique Cadícamo, Celedonio Esteban Flores, José M. Macías, Eugenio Cárdenas or Juan Pedro López.
The tangos El abrojal, A mi palomita, El gran técnico, Cuando me entrés a fail are worth mentioning. i>, Dog, Between two lights, That's my type; their styles The wait, At the foot of the fence, The silk handkerchief, The facón, La mañanita, Complaints and Luna gaucha; its zambas Las margaritas and El biguá; his waltz Cuando miran tus ojos, which has lyrics by Cele Flores, Francisco Brancatti, José Antonio Saldías, Ignacio Corsini, Atilio Supparo, Juan M. Velich, Eugenio Cárdenas, Salvador Riese, Cadícamo and which led to the disco Corsini, Magaldi, Rivero and other singers.
The Indio Aguilar recorded many works of his own production: Manos brujas (fox-trot); Gaucho offering (style); Honeysuckles (zamba); the tangos Milonguera, Flor campera, Trenzas negras, The world is missing a screw, I'm afraid and She cried like a woman; the waltzes Añoranzas, Aromas de El Cairo, Manuelita and Mala suerte.
He was also a singer and by 1925 he formed the duo Aguilar-Fugazot.
With Carlos Gardel
His relationship with Carlos Gardel was not exempt from problems, such as those that caused the singer to kick him out of his ensemble at the beginning of the 1930s.
In 1934 Gardel, who was filming at Paramount in New York at the time, asked Buenos Aires to send some of his former collaborators: guitarists Ángel Domingo Riverol and Guillermo Barbieri. With them was Aguilar, reinstated to the team due to his great quality as a guitarist.
Gardel baptized him with the nickname Indio, for which he gave him a mascot and an Indian head saying: Take, here is your portrait.
The accident where Gardel died
Aguilar was present and survived with severe injuries the plane crash of June 24, 1935 in Medellín, in which Carlos Gardel, Alfredo Le Pera and the guitarists Guillermo Barbieri and Ángel Domingo Riverol died, while they were touring Latin America.
He left an unpublished book entitled I accompanied Carlos Gardel.
Death
After the plane crash in Medellín, Aguilar was left blind and totally disfigured from the burns he suffered.
Tragedy hits him when he is run over in front of Plaza Pueyrredón while trying to board a taxi that was coming from the opposite direction; he was hit by a car, fracturing his leg.
Admitted to Hospital Álvarez, he unexpectedly died of pulmonary edema on December 21, 1951.
He was sixty years old. He was survived by his second wife, the singer Chola Vetere.